Papuans with HIV/AIDS to get microchips

Angel Flassy , The Jakarta Post , Papua | Sat, 11/22/2008 9:00

Amid protests from Papuans and NGOs, the Papua provincial legislative
council is set to pass a bylaw on HIV/AIDS that includes a
controversial article requiring certain people living with the
disease to be implanted with a microchip.

"If the draft bylaw is passed, it will violate the rights of people
living with HIV/AIDS because they will be implanted with microchips,"
said Constan Karma, executive director of the Papua AIDS Commission
(KPAD).

Councilor John Manangsang said the microchips would only be implanted
in people living with HIV/AIDS who were deemed to be "aggressive".
"Aggressive means actively seeking sexual intercourse. This is one
way to protect healthy people," he said.

"Do not misunderstand human rights; if we respect the rights of the
people living with HIV/AIDS, then we must also respect the rights of
healthy people."

He said the public should judge the bylaw draft as a whole rather
than by is constituent articles.

"The draft, for example, requires everyone to take HIV/AIDS tests so
that preventative measures can be taken early on," he said.

"I am a doctor, saving lives is my profession. If we want to save the
only limited number of Papuans, we have to take real action because
47 percent of (the country's) HIV/AIDS (cases) are in Papua."

The 40-article-long bylaw also stipulates that the KPAD executive
director should be a physician who understands epidemiology, the
roles of religious institutions and audit the accreditation of NGOs
working in the field of HIV/AIDS.

A liaison officer of the West Papua chapter of Save Papua, Gunawan,
said he disagreed with the bylaw.

"People with HIV/AIDS do not always have sex, especially those with
AIDS. They can no longer perform sexual intercourse," he said,
perhaps referring to the moral obligation of people living with
HIV/AIDS to not risk spreading the disease.

"And how do you measure aggressiveness?" he added.

Indonesia would be the worst human rights violator if people living
with HIV/AIDS in the country were implanted with microchips, Gunawan
said.

"Let's see how the Papuans respond to the bylaw. It will suffer the
same fate as the pornography law," he said.

Enita T. Rouw, coordinator of the Papua branch of the Indonesian
Network of People Infected with HIV, said incidences of
discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS had declined.

"However, the stigmatization is still there," she said. "So please
don't use microchips. We're humans, not animals."

The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Papua is increasing,
with 319 new cases reported so far this year as of October, taking
the total to 4,114 reported cases, Constan said earlier this month.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/11/22/papuans-with-hivaids-get-microchip\
s.html